February 05, 2019
This was another beautiful day with sunny skies. The locals told us we are having rare weather for the west coast. I expect our luck will run out soon, but I am enjoying it while it lasts.
Heinrich did the driving today. It was about a 45-minute drive to Oparara Basin. Access was up a long narrow twisty gravel road, which we had heard was not advised travel for campervans. Since we got such an early start, the road was not an issue. Only one car passed us on the way there.
It was about a 20-minute hike to Oparara Arch on an easy trail. The arch was a natural bridge and quite impressive. The morning sunshine was coming through the top of the arch when we arrived.
Next we hiked to the Moria Gate Arch. Access to the arch was by climbing into a small cave. There was a metal chain that we could use as a handrail on the way down. This arch was beautiful, and there were cave formations all around. Afterwards we took the loop trail that went directly over the arch to a nice viewpoint of the arch on the other side of the river.
The loop trail went to Mirror Tarn, which was appropriately named with the reflections in the lake. I took a video with the sounds of my favorite New Zealand bellbird in the background.
We drove back to the coast on the same twisty gravel road. This time it was more busy and we passed 8 cars. Then we drove north to the end of the road at Kohaihai. Heinrich found a place in the shade to park the car and decided to skip the hike to avoid any more knee issues. I hiked the Heaphy Track to Scotts Beach. It was a 1-hour hike each way. The trail went up a hill through lush rain forest to Scotts Hill Lookout, a really nice overlook of the beach. There was a picnic table, and it was a great place to relax and listen to the birds. Then I hiked down to the beach. It was high tide with lots of surf, and the wind was not blowing, so I got my first encounter with the dreaded sandflies. Since I had the repellent on and was wearing long pants and heavy socks, they did not bite me. But they certainly were a nuisance on the beach, swarming all around me. I was the only person on that beach, and it was beautiful. I would have stayed longer but the sandflies were just too annoying.
The sandflies were quite territorial. As soon as I left the beach they were no longer an issue. Other highlights of the trail were a small waterfall and a long swinging bridge. My favorite part was the lookout to the beach.
We drove back to the town of Karamea and stopped at the store to buy a few groceries for dinner. Then we drove back to the holiday park and fixed an early dinner in the shared kitchen: spaghetti and salad. I killed numerous sandflies that had made their way into the car when it had been parked next to the beach at Kohaihai.